Sunday, September 20, 2009

We had lunch at a restaurant called KOTO yesterday. KOTO (Know One, Teach One) “is a not-for-profit restaurant and vocational training program that is changing the lives of street and disadvantaged youth in Vietnam”. The staff members at the restaurant go through a hospitality course as well as English lessons. The course is designed for disadvantaged kids between the ages of 16 and 22.

All the restaurant's profit goes back into the charity organisation. The restaurant, 59 Van Mieu Street, is four stories which give you the option of inside or outside dining as well as an area to sit and have a drink. We opted for the fourth floor and decided to sit outside to grab the views. It was sapping heat so in hindsight we should have opted for the air con.

The kids that served us were great. They were friendly, professional and had really good English. I couldn’t help but smile with the accent of the cute little girl who read us the specials from the board. She sold us though and we decided to take the shrimp salad as well as the KOTO special plate, an assortment of goodies, and a dish of mushroom sticky rice. We enjoyed the lunch. The prices were a bit high but still reasonable and it was good to know the money was going to a good cause.

According to the KOTO brochure nearly half of rural Vietnam lives below the poverty line and more than 50% of the country’s population are under the age of 25. This in turn means that much of the youth of Vietnam are suffering. Many kids are not completing school and will struggle to ever find a job. The brochure says that there are an estimated 19,000 young people living on the streets of Hanoi. For this reason alone it is good to go and show some support to KOTO which has already trained over 300 trainees to date. All in all, it won't disappoint.